THE economic reforms currently going on under President
Olusegun Obasanjo administration may have taken their tolls with their
attendent woes as many gainfully employed Nigerians in both private and
public sectors have continued to lose their means of livelihood,
investigations by Daily Triumph have shown.
Findings have indicated that workers in the textile and
garment industries alone have been most affected as various textile
industries have folded up sending more than 35,000 workers out of their jobs
across the country from 1999 to date.
Due to the policy also, many of these industries and
other manufacturing firms, our investigations showed, are now in a serious
dilemma as the policy has not only paralysed and cut their sources of income
but also traumatized their very existence.
Our sources further revealed that the National Union of
Textiles, Garments and Tailoring of Nigeria had an initial 65,000-strong
workforce but who at present have been reduced to half through various
retrenchments and rationalizations carried out by various industries and
factories in this sector.
Commenting at an occasion to mark the long service award
ceremony organized by Northern Bag Manufacturing Company Limited (BAGCO) for
its staff, Comrade Aminu Sulaiman, Senior Assistant to the National
Secretary of the textiles union, confirmed that the situation is alarmingly
staggering.
In an interview with Daily Triumph in Kano later,
Comrade Sulaiman stressed that the membership of the union had drastically
been pruned to slightly above 30,000 from the 65,000 workforce nationwide.
He told Daily Triumph that in Kano alone at the
moment, less than 20 textile industries are functional out of about 35 that
were previously operating.
He named those that have folded up in Kano to include
Bagauda Textile, Kano Textile Printers, Kano Textile Industries, Leader
Textile and Kano Sack Industries among others.
According to him, Gaskiya Textile may soon join the
league, while the Dangote Textile may equally follow suit, saying that these
factories had initially employed between 7,000 and 10,000 workers
collectively but are now out of job.
Comrade Sulaiman explained that before 1999, his union
had over 120,000 members, but following Nigeria�s signing into World Trade
Organisation (WTO) agreement in the same year, the number had drastically
gone down to about 70,000.
Even though Nigerians were jubilating that the coming of
the present civilian administration vis-�-vis democratic government would
bring succour and relief to Nigerian workers, he said, the situation has
unfortunately continued to worsen an already bad scenario.
Between 1999 to date, he further said, his union had lost
over 35,000 members and that there were over 150 textile mills in Nigeria to
which at the moment only a little above 65 are working while all others have
since closed shops.
He blamed the government�s economic policy for being
responsible for the woes of the industries, saying that liberalizing our
market had immensely contributed to its being hijacked by the strong players
in the world market.
He observed that the Asian Tigers like China, Malaysia,
India, Indonesia and Pakistan had encouraged industrialization with optimum
infrastructure and good incentives and protection against foreign goods�
penetration into their markets unlike what obtains in Nigeria.
Smuggling, according to him, has almost become officially
institutionalized in Nigeria as some untouchable businessmen continue to
receive security escorts to smuggle goods into the country, adding that with
this trend, therefore, some factories are being forced to close shops
thereby sending many employees out of jobs, a gesture he further argued,
that has serious negative effects on the employees� family, dependants and
the economy at large.
He said crimes have also risen because of the policy in
place, hoping that government would be able to tackle these problems in
order to address these problems of insecurity in the country.
On his part, Comrade Ali Munnir Matawalle, Kano NLC
chairman, said with the happening, the authorities have mortgaged the
country to foreign economic dictates, urging the National Assembly
to be more alive to their responsibilities so as to save the country and
its 150 million people from the fangs of the so-called developed nations.
